Enneagon
Chapter 1: Prologue
**THIS IS THE SEQUEL TO HEXAGON***
Not a stand alone story. If you haven't read that, you will be confused.
Now for the customary warnings for the children:
***WARNINGS***
THIS STORY WILL BE BLOODY, ESPECIALLY IN LATER CHAPTERS. PEOPLE WILL MOST LIKELY DIE (deaths are still tbd, so I'll edit the warnings accordingly)
Also: sexual innuendos and crude language (no explicit smut though)
In short: don't read if you're sensitive or a child. The back button's right there.
…
If you're still here after all that, welcome!
***Please read the end notes, they're important**
On with the fic!
...
[location unspecified]
[07.03.2065]
"Do you know what the worst thing about this is?", came the snappish, honey-like voice from the other side of a beer-soaked couch. "Aside from keeping tabs on brats all day?"
The two men crammed near one armrest looked at each other dumbly, furiously making faces at each other as if urging the other to speak up. The blond one finally caved, gave his partner a vengeful jab in the ribs, then turned nervously to the figure sitting primly on the other armrest.
The blond got the distinct impression that the figure was trying to let as little of his skirt touch the sticky cushions as possible.
"No sir", the blond said shakily, then crammed himself even further into the armrest, a futile attempt to put more physical distance between himself and the other man.
"I haven't had my nails done in weeks", the figure said in outrage. The constant lilting of his voice made his anger sound almost comical, even more so as he gestured to his hands as if trying to make a point. And indeed, one of the rhinestone studded acrylics had broken cleanly in half. "How the hell am I supposed to go out like this, looking like a cheap floozy and a half!"
The two men looked at each other in disbelief, clearly not knowing what to say to their boss's bizarre anger. The leader of the gang got up in his irritation and stalked to the window on his towering platforms. His powder blue wig, which dragged behind him like a hairy cape, seemed to work almost like a mop. Wherever he walked, his hair dragged long, smooth trails through the dust.
This man, with his strange, fruity voice and even stranger style of dress, stood by the window with his broken-nailed hand resting daintily on one cocked hip. He surveyed the street, which was filled with other shabby, run-down houses and the occasional trailer home. He spun furiously on his two companions and stalked toward them, his platforms making odd clacking noises on the rotting floorboards.
"And this", he hissed. "Is just unacceptable." He gestured around him, at the sticky, beer-stained couch, at the dusty floor with its decaying wood, and at the cockroach infested kitchen. "I refuse to stay in this…", he was struggling to find a word nasty enough, "...dunghill any further."
With that, the man scooped his wig protectively off the floor and flounced off into the hall.
The two men stared at each other, too overwhelmed to feel anything but relief that the strange, but undeniably dangerous man had finally gone.
…
[Newport Beach, CA: Private Property]
[07.29.2065]
Hollyleaf had never truly appreciated how nice it was to have a private beach until that afternoon in early August, when the midday sun abused half the state and people flocked to the beaches in droves. Their beach wasn't necessarily huge, a small, scenic cove taken out of the California coastline.
But it was blessedly tourist-free, and to Hollyleaf? It might as well have been the most beautiful place in the world, Niagara Falls and the Taj Mahal be damned.
On top of that, it was wonderfully quiet, the only sounds being Cinderheart's distant shrieks of indignance from out in the water. She looked up and spared the waves an amused glance, and saw Cinderheart emerging from under the water, hopping mad with sand in her hair.
Lionblaze had apparently pulled her feet out from under her.
Again.
"Those two", Fallen Leaves remarked next to her, shaking his head. "I'm surprised Cinderheart hasn't murdered him yet."
"She probably will if he dunks her underwater again", she snickered. "Forget Ivypool, have you seen Cinderheart when she's pissed? Stars have mercy. I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of her foot."
"I heard my name", Ivypool called from the cliff base, where she had been sprawled out on a large boulder, sunbathing. Sunbathing. One of the few things Ivypool couldn't do successfully, because the sun reduced her to the color of freshly-caught lobster meat after mere minutes.
And sure enough, when Ivypool sat up to get a better look at them, her front had already gone pink.
Next to her, Fallen Leaves turned away so the terrifying blondine couldn't see him laughing.
Ivypool being Ivypool, she noticed regardless. She looked over at them, looked down, and gave an exasperated moan of misery, getting up to slather more sunscreen onto her chest.
She made a point of thwacking Fallen Leaves on the head with the bottle as she passed.
"You can both fuck off", she said, only half serious.
In the distance, Lionblaze let out an uncharacteristically high-pitched scream of terror. Cinderheart had apparently finally gotten fed up with his antics and decided to make sure he regretted them.
And regret them he did.
Minutes later, Lionblaze came limping back onto the sand with a look of the utmost remorse on his face.
Hollyleaf couldn't help herself. She burst out laughing. "You really tried her, huh?", she snorted, giving his shoulder a playful shove.
He groaned.
"Never. Never again. Ugh. I'm never going to get the damn sand out of my nose-"
Just then, Berrynose, Foxleap, Hazeltail, and Honeyfern came out of the water, too. Berrynose, because he seemed to have a fifth sense that told him exactly when Lionblaze was eating humble pie, Foxleap, because he was always down for a laugh of some sort. Hazeltail and Honeyfern, because Honeyfern had gotten seaweed in her bikini top and Hazeltail hadn't felt like staying out in the water by herself.
When Cinderheart finally got out of the water, too, Berrynose made a motion of gallantly kissing the top of her hand.
"You knocked him down a peg? Wonderful! I'll have to get you flowers."
"Shut up, Berrynose", Lionblaze snapped from where he lay bonelessly on a towel. "That's my girlfriend you're talking to."
But Berrynose, cackling, squatted and said very loudly, "Your girlfriend? Are you sure you're not her boyfriend? Because I'm seriously starting to question who wears the pants in this relationship."
Cinderheart snickered.
"I hate all of you." Lionblaze poked one finger at Berrynose. "Especially you. Fuck off and let my pride recover in peace, why don't you."
Berrynose just laughed even harder. Briarlight took that moment to wave exaggeratedly to an imaginary person in the distance, loudly calling out, "Oh, hello RAIN."
Berrynose stopped laughing at once, threw a furtive glance over his shoulder, then stared around the beach as if looking for escape routes.
Honeyfern positively howled.
It didn't take long before that had become the group's favorite pastime, pretending to see the siblings' formidable blond valet and watching Berrynose seize up with horror.
That was, until there was actually a tall, white-blazered form clambering down the cliff stairs and onto the sand.
Foxleap looked up from where he'd been playing Go Fish with Honeyfern and gestured up the cliff. "Oh, look. Rain's coming."
Berrynose scoffed. "You're not getting me with that this time. She's not actually here, you and Rain can both go sit on a pin."
"Excuse me?", came the formal, deep timbre-d voice from behind him.
Berrynose blanched comically.
Rain was standing at his shoulder, her hands folded neatly by her waist with her hair gleaming gold in the sun.
"Oh-! I didn't mean it, I swear, please-"
Fallen Leaves and Lionblaze exchanged glances, then muttered out something that sounded suspiciously like "pussy".
Hollyleaf, looking at the sinews rippling dangerously in Rain's pale forearms, thought that Berrynose's terror might be justified.
Rain, whose face would have usually split into a teasing smile at this point, looked up and met the teens' eyes with an expression of stone. "We have news you might not...like", she said, selecting her words carefully.
We exchanged glances.
"What?", Jayfeather asked shortly.
"Firestar's here. And I feel like he should explain."
…
The question of how Firestar had managed to age half a century in the span of nine months was a secret man was not meant to know. There he sat, graying and exhausted, with his red hair starting to look dangerously thin near the top of his head.
But despite his rather downtrodden appearance, he still smiled when the group filed into the room. He gave his three grandchildren the fond look reminiscent of the kindly grandfather he was, then walked over to the rest of the group and greeted them warmly.
He seated himself heavily in a white swivel armchair, pressed his fingertips firmly together, and surveyed the twelve of them as if trying to find the words.
The silence hung thick and oppressive over the twelve teens, and after an awkward minute, even Rain was rocking nervously back and forth on the balls of her feet.
"Rain, there's no need for that", Firestar said tiredly. "Sit. You're practically a part of the family anyway." Rain, looking shocked but pleased, sat carefully on the edge of one of the couches, as if she wasn't sure how much casual behavior was acceptable in front of her boss.
Firestar gave an exhausted groan and tugged his fingers frustratedly into his graying hair. "Alright", he said firmly. "There's really no getting around this, is there?"
The group exchanged cautious glances, not sure what to make of Firestar's bizarre comment.
"I...we have no idea what you're talking about", Icecloud said tentatively.
"I'll get to it then, shall I?" More silence. Twelve sets of eyes, thirteen including the steely-blue of Rain's, settled onto him.
"The Dark sector has been disbanded, as I'm sure everyone here is aware. All permanent members of the Dark sector were expelled almost immediately. The students who were involved but did not commit any crimes that we know of have been pardoned."
Breezepelt and Ivypool opened their mouths furiously, as if to protest this statement, when Firestar raised a hand to silence them. "There turned out to be a lot more students affiliated with the Dark Forest than we previously knew. As far as we know, over two hundred of Hexagon's fifteen hundred had Dark Forest ties. A mass expulsion of that scale would just be unreasonable, especially since so many of those students never committed any crimes and didn't want to be there in the first place."
That….made sense. So Ivypool and Breezepelt fell into unruly silence, waiting for Firestar to finish talking.
"The Dark sector will be being replaced by a new group of students from an Academy that was forced to close at the end of last year."
The reaction at the end of this statement was explosive.
"What?", Foxleap exclaimed, confused. "Why?"
Firestar looked over at his grandchildren pleadingly. "Hollyleaf, Lionblaze, Jayfeather, surely you remember Leafstar?"
Hollyleaf blinked. "Leafstar? You mean that ex-business partner of yours? The one who ended up opening her own school on the other side of Briox?"
"The very one."
"And she was forced to close? What happened?"
"I'm afraid that information is confidential at the moment. The point is that Leafstar and I are friends, and she needed somewhere to take the small group of students she has left."
"So you offered her Hexagon", Berrynose remarked bluntly.
"Essentially, yes."
"Firestar, with all due respect", Ivypool began stubbornly. "Have you considered that West Briox is practically a completely different country? With a completely different culture? Are you sure this is a good idea?"
Firestar seemed to be caught between two choices and was trying desperately to make a decision. Finally, he gestured to Berrynose, Honeyfern, Foxleap, Hazeltail, and Icecloud. Then he gestured at the door.
Bewildered, the five of them rose and left the room. No one missed the rather hurt expression on some of their faces as they filed out, and Hollyleaf was already giving the other girls an apologetic wave when the door closed.
Firestar tugged at his hair even more fiercely than before.
"I know this information is supposed to be kept quiet...but you seven have a right to know. After what you went through in March, it's only fair. He took a deep breath, as if trying to steel himself for the rulebreaking he was about to commit.
"Sky Academy didn't close because it's a bad school. It closed….because the school was being threatened."
Silence. Complete and utter silence.
"What", came Jayfeather's flat response. That single word simmered with pained, barely concealed anger. Just months after he'd lost one of his best friends, and his grandfather seemed to be exposing him and his family to danger, again.
"An unknown group started to harass the school day in and day out, to the point that the parents started pulling their kids out. Leafstar came to Hexagon mere weeks before Sky Academy was scheduled to shut down, and asked if she could bring her remaining students to Hexagon."
Nobody spoke.
Firestar coughed. "We...have reason to believe that Hawkfrost may be involved."
The name Hawkfrost seemed to stir something in everyone but Jayfeather in particular. He had been sitting, serious but composed, until that name had fallen. And suddenly, he didn't look nearly as calm anymore.
"But why Hexagon?", Jayfeather exploded furiously. "You don't even know this lady that well, so why Hexagon?! There's millions of other schools out there! Why here?!"
"Hexagon is a floating school, Jayfeather! She thinks that bringing her students to Hexagon will be the best way to keep them safe, and with our new security measures, I agree! I have to do what's right, Jay."
"Oh yes, because we were so safe last year", he sneered mockingly, the pain starkly visible in his face. He rounded on Cinderheart and Fallen Leaves. "Tell me Cinderheart, did you feel safe when Redwillow put a gun to your head? Or you. Fallen Leaves. When that bastard Birchfall strangled you."
He spun, facing Lionblaze, his scarred over blue eyes level with his brother's. "Or you. How safe did you feel when Heathertail tried to rape you?"
The silence that followed his words was thick to the point of suffocation.
"Jayfeather….", Hollyleaf said tightly, putting her arm placatingly on her brother's shoulder. "I understand that you're upset but that was uncalled for."
Lionblaze's face had soured with anger. "What. The. Fuck", he hissed. "What's your fucking damage?" Jayfeather ignored him in stride, and now Cinderheart and Fallen Leaves looked angry, too. Cinderheart opened her mouth to speak but Jayfeather beat her to it, rounding on Firestar in fury. "You don't understand, Firestar!", he yelled. "How Hawkfrost looked at me. How he touched me. You're practically putting a target on Hexagon. And by extension, all of us with me included."
The door slammed violently behind him.
Briarlight, her face taught with concern, rose awkwardly on her prosthetic leg and clunked after him.
What a year.
End Chapter 1
!IMPORTANT INFORMATION!
-my update schedule is every other Sunday, unless I state otherwise
-constructive criticism and suggestions are welcome and appreciated
-to anyone who hasn't read my work before: I am here for the angst. Be prepared for emotional turmoil.
Also, the new cover art? You guys have no idea how many pictures of kpop idols I had to google until I was happy with Lionblaze's face. Idk if you guys noticed, but my most commonly used descriptive words for Lionblaze are "pretty" and "strawberry blond". PRETTY. Not handsome. Pretty.
Reviews are loved :)
Azra out!